Here & Now

Here & Now for April 30, 2021

Announcer:

The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Nancy Pelosi:

I have the high privilege and distinct honor to present to you the president of the United States.

Marisa Wojcik:

In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Joe Biden details big, and Republicans say costly, economic plans for a nation in recovery. Economic policy takes shape in Washington while new attention is paid in Wisconsin to the Foxconn deal, a contract first struck by former governor Scott Walker, now under re-consideration by the Tony Evers’ administration. I’m Marisa Wojcik sitting in for Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” Wisconsin congressional reaction to President Joe Biden’s Wednesday night address. Representatives Gwen Moore and Mike Gallagher are here. The secretary and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is here as well. Secretary Missy Hughes has the latest on the Foxconn contract developments. “Here & Now’s” Will Cushman reports on the week’s COVID-19 news. It’s “Here & Now” for April 30.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Joe Biden:

Twelve years is no longer enough today to compete with the rest of the world in the 21st century. That’s why my American Families Plan guarantees four additional years of public education for every person in America starting as early as we can. The great universities of this country conducted studies over the last ten years that shows that adding two years of universal high-quality preschool for every three-year-old and four-year-old no matter what background they come from puts them in a position to be able to compete.

Marisa Wojcik:

President Joe Biden talks about his plan to expand free public education in his first address to a joint session of Congress. So what is the reaction from Wisconsin’s congressional representatives to Biden’s robust agenda? We first turn to Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore, who represents Milwaukee and thank you so much for being here.

Gwen Moore:

Oh, it’s so great to be with you.

Marisa Wojcik:

As a female legislator that has marked many titles of being the first, what did it mean to you to hear President Joe Biden acknowledge that for the first time two women were behind him and that, “no president has ever said those words from this podium and it’s about time?”

Gwen Moore:

It is an unbelievable development and I think that those two women sitting there is a manifestation of where we have come in terms of the kind of public policy that we’re seeking. You know, one of the controversial parts of his rescue plan and family plan is to build infrastructure for child care. And why is this just now as urgent as it is? And I’ve had very nice gentlemen say, well, you know, I can see talking about lead pipes and broadband as infrastructure, but child care, you know? The problem of child care is a problem for women who need the services and it’s a problem for the workers who don’t get paid well. It’s a problem for business owners of child care centers who are entrepreneurial women. And I think it’s an equal protection clause that this president has leaned into. I think having lost his wife and child and becoming a single parent of two boys is really created a level of sensitivity to these kinds of issues as a president that is unprecedented.

Marisa Wojcik:

And as we heard a moment ago, the president unveiled the American Families Plan Wednesday night, which includes free preschool and community college, paid family leave, subsidized child care and protract the expanded child tax credit of monthly payments to low and middle-income families. Why are these four initiatives needed right now, at a cost of $1.9 trillion?

Gwen Moore:

Well, you get a much better return on this $1.9 trillion than you did the $1.9 trillion in Tax Cut and Jobs Act where 83% of that just went to rich people who bought stock back. I mean, $1.9 trillion, I mean just expanding the child tax credit will take 50% of African-American children out of poverty. I mean, think about the return on that investment. Child care, we’ve already discussed the dearth of that. And even women who are doing well in the workforce can’t afford the cost of good day care. Day care can almost cost as much as college tuition or private schooling. Preschool, the science is in. Birth through three is where it’s at. We can’t afford to not monetize the need to get ahold of these brains and start teaching children something earlier than that. I think the educational gaps we see have come from the lack of early learning, when the brain is more active and ready to engage. And so these are ideas whose time has come. And when you look at the polls, you can see that although there’s a lot of opposition from Republicans to the president’s agenda, he’s getting like 63%, 65% approval for these proposals. And so we’re moving from just sort of rescuing the economy to really building back better so that people are better off than where they were before.

Marisa Wojcik:

And the president laid out a lengthy policy wish list during his speech and said he wants to work with Republicans. In the Republican response however Senator Tim Scott called Biden’s speech empty platitudes that are only sowing more division. Democrats do only have a slim majority and is Biden sowing more division than unity with these really progressive and costly plans?

Gwen Moore:

Well, I just think it’s interesting that Republicans only care about debts and deficits and spending when Democrats are in charge. I mean, our deficit and spending grew under, believe it or not, Ronald Reagan, ultra-conservative. It grew under George W. Bush. Certainly Trump spent all he wanted and Republicans spent. I mean, they had the Tax Cut Jobs Act, which benefited the top, you know, 1% of Americans, created billionaires. And so now investing in people, investing in education, investing in our infrastructure is what we’re going to do with those monies instead of just pouring into folks who want to buy back their stocks. This is why Donald Trump used to brag about the stock market all the time. But the stock market is not the economy. The economy is me being able to go and buy my son or daughter a — new school clothes. That’s the economy.

Marisa Wojcik:

Representative Gwen Moore, we need to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us.

Gwen Moore:

Thank you for having me.

Marisa Wojcik:

We now hear from across the aisle, where feedback has been less favorable of Biden’s plans. Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher joins us now from Green Bay, and Representative Gallagher, thank you so much for being here today.

Mike Gallagher:

Thanks for having me.

Marisa Wojcik:

You released a statement yesterday saying the president’s agenda was too expansive and the people of Wisconsin want, “less not more government intervention in their lives.” Is that what you heard from constituents?

Mike Gallagher:

Yeah. I think the biggest thing I’ve heard at least economically going around northeast Wisconsin and talking to businesses of all sizes, given the unique economic position we’re in trying to come out of coronavirus strong is just that we need workers. Every business in Wisconsin is struggling to find people to work. And that’s going to be a real constraint to growth in Wisconsin going forward. And so that’s kind of the biggest economic issue. And my concern is the longer we extend the federal government plus up of unemployment or give people direct checks we might create a disincentive to work which ends up being bad for the state of Wisconsin and communities like mine. As for infrastructure, I think we’re all united on the idea we want to make a smart investment in infrastructure, but we have to be very diligent and disciplined in how we spend that money as well as how we raise funds for infrastructure going forward.

Marisa Wojcik:

And you have criticized the price tag of President Biden’s plans but he did say he’ll pay for it by taxing the wealthiest 1% who have been evading what Biden calls their fair share citing American billionaires increased their net wealth during the pandemic while the rest of the country struggled. Why couldn’t this solution fund his plans?

Mike Gallagher:

Well just as a matter of math, there isn’t enough money from the so-called 1% to fund these very expansive and ambitious plans. We’re talking about trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars, effectively doubling the size of the federal government in terms of spending after we just spend upwards of $4 trillion. Actually we allocated that much money which has not been spent yet — a lot of which has not yet been spent yet at the state level. So at a time when state, local and county governments are trying to figure out how do they spend the money they just got from the federal government to help Wisconsinites that might need help, I’m not sure it makes sense to tax more Wisconsinites in order to fund more spending when we’re not even done with the last round. I worry about the effect it will have on economic growth at a time when we’re poised to have explosive economic growth because of the pent-up demand that we’ve had from coronavirus. And over the long term, I’m all about getting American jobs back here in America, growing Wisconsin jobs and if we have an uncompetitive tax code relative to our international competitors like communist China and Biden would raise the corporate tax rate 3% higher than communist China, we’re going to see a ton of Wisconsin jobs get outsourced to overseas. That’s going to hurt our community. We need to be bringing those jobs back here to America, incentivizing American manufacturing. We want Wisconsin to emerge as the hub for that next generation of high-tech manufacturing. And we can do it if we get a few things right and a big part of that is our tax code, making sure it’s competitive.

Marisa Wojcik:

In his American Families Plan, Biden is proposing expanding universal education past K-12 to include free preschool and two years of community college arguing this is how the United States is going to compete with the world and win the 21st century. You’ve used this language of winning and losing in reference to China. Do you support Biden’s expanded investment in education?

Mike Gallagher:

I don’t. But I do think this is a key point that education, K-12 education really used to be America’s big advantage, right? We used to be top in the world and measured by the international PISA exam, American education has really been sliding slowing into a state of mediocrity. And similarly, Wisconsin used to be top five in terms of education. We were known as an education powerhouse. But our ranking has similarly fallen into mediocrity. Before we spend trillions more dollars on expanding mediocre education, I think we really need to figure out how do we get K-12, at least in Wisconsin, back to the top of the heap? Our goal should be to have the number one K-12 system in the country by 2030. And common sense to me dictates that we need to focus on the system as it exists now, before we dramatically expand it. Again, I’m not sure allowing people to go to college for free, even if it’s just community college, is the right way. In fact, I think the big thing we’ve learned over the last two decades through painful trial and error is not every kid needs to go to college. In fact, I think the message we need to be sending to our high school seniors is you can go right into the workforce. You can work for Marinette Marine, Oshkosh Truck, any manufacturer in Wisconsin and you can earn a heck of a living and you can be saving for when you want to start a family. You’ll have a house before your colleagues who went to college and are drowning in a mountain of debt. I almost think that’s the opposite direction we need to be going in.

Marisa Wojcik:

With under a minute left, you do see eye to eye with Democrats on the Endless Frontier Act which would invest billions into technology and research manufacturing. Biden’s jobs proposal also invests billions into research and development of new technologies. Do you support that and do you think this will lead to more and better jobs?

Mike Gallagher:

I support carving out an area of bipartisan agreement where we can invest in the technology of the future. What we learned in coronavirus is we’re too dependent on a hostile foreign power in communist China for manufacturing of life-saving drugs. I had a bill with Mark Pocan and Mark and I don’t agree on a lot on how we bring that manufacturing back to the United States. The same is true for semiconductors, rare earth, AI, robotics. I co-chair a supply chain task force. We are going to have to invest smartly to bring that manufacturing of critical technology back to the United States to make sure we are the global hub for innovation and future technology and that everyone still wants to come to America because we’re the greatest country in the world.

Marisa Wojcik:

We need to leave it there. Representative Mike Gallagher, thank you so much for joining us.

Mike Gallagher:

Thank you.

Marisa Wojcik:

We shift now from Washington to Wisconsin news, including a new state initiative launched this week by Attorney General Josh Kaul. It’s an updated effort to review reports of clergy abuse in Wisconsin. The Department of Justice worked together drafting the plan with district attorneys, survivor groups and crime victim service workers.

Josh Kaul:

Our review will consist of two principal parts. First, we will be requesting and reviewing documents produced by dioceses and religious orders. Secondly, we are asking anybody with knowledge of clergy and faith leader abuse, including the institutional response to that abuse, to contact us. I want to stress that we strongly encourage anyone who knows anything to report. No detail is too small. If you’ve reported before, we would like you to contact us. If you haven’t reported before, we would like for you to contact us. And if you know about abuse involving somebody who can’t report, we want to encourage you to report that abuse.

Marisa Wojcik:

In 2018, it was advertised by the Scott Walker administration as a transformative and innovative business enterprise. Bringing Taiwan-based Foxconn to Wisconsin promised a new era of manufacturing in the field of electronics and a desire to position Wisconsin as the Silicon Valley of the Midwest. Today the state’s contract with the tech giant has just been dramatically scaled back, renegotiated by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation from a historic $2.85 billion in state taxpayer dollars to more modest $80 million. For what’s next with the state’s new business arrangement, we’re joined by the CEO and secretary of the WEDC, Missy Hughes. Thank you so much for joining us.

Missy Hughes:

Good morning. Thank you for having me.

Marisa Wojcik:

So what is in the new contract and how does it differ from the jobs and investment promises originally made by Foxconn?

Missy Hughes:

So the original contract was an agreement between the state and Foxconn to incentivize Foxconn to build a massive factory, $10 billion worth of investment, creating 13,000 jobs. And it was actually a very prescriptive contract in that it required Foxconn to build these large LCD screens. And when it came time for Foxconn to do that, the market had changed, it was much less competitive and it didn’t make sense for Foxconn to build those in the United States. And so what we’ve done is worked with Foxconn to right-size the contract, to make it make sense for Foxconn’s business, but more importantly to make it make sense for the Wisconsin taxpayers.

Marisa Wojcik:

The original contract did incorporate clawbacks for that purpose despite that Foxconn was still trying to get payments from the state for some time and wouldn’t renegotiate and blaming market forces for these deficiencies. So what changed?

Missy Hughes:

Well, we were able to continue to work with Foxconn to, you know, demonstrate to them that the contract was based on this massive facility. You’re not building this massive facility. We need to do something different. I think ultimately WEDC’s decision to tell Foxconn that they were not eligible for tax credits last fall really helped to kind of say, okay, you know, it’s time to get to the table and it’s time get to work on right-sizing this contract.

Marisa Wojcik:

So what exactly is Foxconn going to make or do on the Mount Pleasant campus?

Missy Hughes:

Well, Foxconn’s expertise is in what’s called contract manufacturing. They’re really good at building things for other people. So what they’re doing right now, what I’ve been able to see firsthand, is building high-tech data servers, and they have put in assembly lines to do that. They are building those for a number of different companies. And they will continue to be able to be flexible and build other types of products for other companies and really use their expertise. So what we’ve done is given them the opportunity to respond to market forces and really scale back the exposure for Wisconsin taxpayers.

Marisa Wojcik:

Now, the last numbers that we saw of employment data showed that Foxconn was short of what the 2020 tax credits are going to require. Is Foxconn going to find itself over-promising over and over?

Missy Hughes:

You know, we’ve worked — one of the things we really worked with Foxconn was to find — you know, let’s find what’s a conservative estimate of what you’re going to be doing so we can get some winds, move past the old contract. So I’m confident that Foxconn is going to meet the performance requirements. When we get their report, which is now due on July 1, we will go through the process of verifying that the way we do with all of our contracts. And then I’m confident that we’ll be able to award Foxconn some tax credits for their work.

Marisa Wojcik:

Some economists say incentives like this just don’t work. So is this something the WEDC is going to continue as a practice going forward?

Missy Hughes:

Well, I think what’s really important to keep in mind is businesses are looking for many complicated things when they’re making a decision where to expand or locate their business. They’re looking at workforce. They’re looking at education of that workforce. They want to make sure that the community is friendly to the business and the state is friendly to the business. And then they are interested in incentives. You know, some of our work shows that, you know, it’s maybe a 10% decision-maker for them. So we want to make sure at WEDC that we’re covering the 90% that we’ve got the workforce for the companies who want to come here. That we’re educating that workforce. That we’ve got the infrastructure for them to land here. So there’s a whole lot of decisions to be making. We’ll continue to offer incentives to businesses that want to come here but we’re also going to make sure we’re doing the work to make sure this is the right place for them.

Marisa Wojcik:

On Wednesday night President Biden laid out ambitions for investments in tech research and development. Despite Foxconn’s setbacks, does Wisconsin still have potential to grow its footprint in big tech overall?

Missy Hughes:

I’m so excited about Wisconsin’s opportunity given the new conversations about infrastructure, the new energy economy. We are a powerhouse of manufacturing. So with the addition of companies like Foxconn, but we’ve also got powerhouses like Johnson Controls and Rockwell. We’re ready to take advantage of all of this energy that’s coming into the economy and I’m so excited for the new opportunities, whether it’s building batteries or solar panels, electric vehicles. There’s just all sorts of conversations right now, and Wisconsin’s poised to jump on those opportunities.

Marisa Wojcik:

All right. We need to leave it there. Secretary Missy Hughes of the WEDC. Thank you so much for joining us.

Missy Hughes:

Thank you.

Marisa Wojcik:

COVID-19 variants continue to spread in neighboring states, but have they yet breached Wisconsin’s borders in similar numbers? And how well is Wisconsin doing in its campaign to vaccinate everyone 16 and older? For the latest on the condition of COVID-19 in the state, we turn to our own “Here & Now” reporter Will Cushman. And, Will, thank you so much for being here today.

Will Cushman:

Thanks, Marisa.

Marisa Wojcik:

So can you give us an overall update on where the state is with COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths?

Will Cushman:

Sure. So currently the seven-day average for COVID-19 cases, that’s new daily cases, is hovering between 600 and 650. That’s 25% lower than it was just a couple weeks ago but still about nearly twice as high as it was at some points in March. At the same time, it’s still a lot lower than it was during the surge in November when the seven-day average actually topped about 6,500 for a little while. The seven-day average for deaths is creeping up a little bit this week. It’s at about a dozen right now. Last week it was hovering around four or five. The seven-day average for new hospitalizations is about 60. It’s been hovering there for a week or two.

Marisa Wojcik:

And where do vaccination rates and totals currently stand?

Will Cushman:

Sure. Currently right now about 43% of Wisconsinites have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. So that’s about 2.5 million Wisconsinites. Now within the last day or so, fully over one-third of Wisconsinites are fully — or at least have completed their vaccine series. So that’s nearly two million Wisconsinites.

Marisa Wojcik:

In terms of geographic distinctions, why do vaccination rates look different across Wisconsin?

Will Cushman:

That’s a really good question, and the vaccination rates are really kind of starting to diverge at the county level. Dane County is now leading the way, with nearly 60% of residents receiving at least one dose. A couple other counties are close behind. Those are some kind of smaller counties with a lot of retirees. That would be Door County and Bayfield County. And then there’s a large swath of the state that’s pretty close to the state average, around 40%. But then there’s a group of counties outside of Eau Claire where vaccination rates are really lagging. That includes Taylor County and Clark County, where not even a quarter of residents have received one dose. So there are a whole lot of reasons why vaccination rates are varying, but any more — or earlier in the vaccination campaign, a lot of that had to do with who was eligible for the vaccine and whether a county had a lot of older residents or a lot of health care workers made a pretty significant impact. But now it has a lot more to do with who wants to get a COVID-19 vaccine now that we’re nearly a month into universal eligibility for adults. So we’re seeing parts of the state where people are clamoring for vaccine, including Dane County and some other suburban areas, La Crosse County, Eau Claire County. And then some predominantly rural parts of the state people are not clamoring for vaccines quite as much. In some ways, those patterns kind of reflect the annual flu vaccine rates around the state. There’s a whole number of reasons why some people are kind of hesitant to get a vaccine. There has been some analyses, nationwide analysis by the New York Times, showed that counties that went for President Trump and have a lot of Republican voters are kind of lagging in vaccination rates. A similar, Wisconsin-level analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found something similar going on here in Wisconsin.

Marisa Wojcik:

Will Cushman, thank you very much.

Will Cushman:

Thank you.

Marisa Wojcik:

Will’s reports can be found at PBSwisconsin.org, then click on the news page. And that’s all for our program tonight. Frederica Freyberg will return next Friday. I’m Marisa Wojcik. Have a good weekend.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.